Creating Proxies in Karma and Solaris | Houdini 19.5

We know from the Layout LOP that we can set our own proxy geometry for assets but how can that be achieved. This video goes over how to create proxies in Karma and Solaris in Houdini 19.5. We also cover a secondary method of managing polygon count in the viewport.
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[@NicolasLekai]

thx man:) exactly what i was looking for:)

[@job_hobby9752]

Thank you for the information, but it seems to me that the topic is not covered. We created two objects (a cube and a sphere) but how did we set the sphere to be a proxy for the cube geometry? Or is it just two separate primitives, which are displayed in different scenarios (in viewport and rendering), but not related to each other?
Thank you for the information, but it seems to me that the topic is not covered. We created two objects (a cube and a sphere) but how did we set the sphere to be a proxy for the cube geometry? Or is it just two separate primitives, which are displayed in different scenarios (in viewport and rendering), but not related to each other?
I understand how you can automatically create proxy geometry when creating assets through component builder, but how to deal with real assets not through this node? Separately output sop create, import geometry, pass through polyreduce output back to LOP? Maybe there are more convenient built-in methods?
P.S. I understand that you aren't technical support, but I would like to solve this problem not only by myself, but popularization of Karma is engaged by very few people :)

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

The cube and the sphere are irrelevant and just being used to give a very clear visual demonstration that different objects are being displayed. A proxy is simply another object with a lower polycount used for a viewport display of final render geo. With a final model you would polyreduce or have a different low poly geometry that you use as your proxy geo. In this example I was essentially using the cube as the final render geometry and the sphere as the proxy geometry. Again this was done to give a very clear visual of what was happening

[@francoiskrugerpersonal2985]

@@InsideTheMindSpace I agree with @job_hobby9752 here actually. You seem to be missing something in your tutorial. We understand that the cube and sphere are just examples. Let's say the asset is "RubicsCube" and the proxy:sphere and render:cube. Where in your tutorial did you actually specify that the sphere is the proxy for RubicsCube and that the cube is the render for RubicsCube?...What you did here is you just merged two completely random objects. No where did you specify their relevance towards each other. In a scene with 100 objects, your method wouldn't work well.

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

I stated multiple times which is the render geometry and which is the proxy geometry. It seems you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a proxy is. A proxy is simply geometry that is displayed in the viewport until render time where it is swapped out for the render geometry. What two geometries you use is irrelevant. For example a tree might be represented in the viewport as a tube or maybe a plane but at render time the tree is rendered. It seems you are watching tutorials to follow everything mindlessly step by step without learning what actually is being shown. To say this method would not work on a scene with 100 objects is factually incorrect as this is the method to create proxies.

[@chr1st0pher]

@@francoiskrugerpersonal2985 i think what is missing is that you'd probably want to put the proxy and the render geo here for example under the same prim. so rather than using $OS as the import path prefix, youd probably want to set it something custom like /mygeo/render , and then name the other one /mygeo/proxy. that way if you are selecting /mygeo and doing a transform or instance or whatever of that, it's doing the operation to both, the parent prim, and both the render geo and the proxy geo are along for the ride.

[@ripvangu]

@@chr1st0pher yeah,was struggling with this too

[@lovepreetsingh-fj3rr]

if i have a usd reference file in lop can i make a proxy for those data how can i reduce the polycount of usd geo any idea would be helpful thanks..

[@SereneBobcat]

thanks for this. Great info.

[@hanheecho6437]

So I can render this proxy on Maya? Can I export this alembic or usd? I am struggling to find how exporting complex objects(like destruction sim) as proxies out now. I found that alembic is not working, about 120frames are too big data to import in maya.

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Your destruction sim is likely so large because it has a lot of data attached to it that probably is no longer necessary. When you export files that come from simulations, you want to remove every attribute that is not going to be used later as it will seriously increase file size

[@namdhis]

Hope you can make more tutorials with karma. Mantra is too slow for rendering.

[@johancc22]

Can I like it twice? :D Thank you!

[@InsideTheMindSpace]

Glad you found it useful. Thanks for the support!